Method of forming modular frameless roof construction



35in- 1963 M. w. GOODWILL ETAL 3,07

METHOD OF FORMING MODULAR FRAMELESS ROOF CONSTRUCTION Filed June 6, 1956 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTORS L ESL/E W HHUG Aq HUR/CE w. 60ODW/LL ZfiLZQkzmAanfic/Moede/b,

Qdamw! HTTORNEYS Jan. 15, 1963 M. w. GOODWILL ET AL 3,0

METHOD OF FORMING MODULAR FRAMELESS ROOF CONSTRUCTION Filed June 6, 1956 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTO S LESLIE W. HAL/e MHURICE w GOODW/LL ZULZM/mAon,SCMoedz/L,

HTTORNEYS United rates atent @t 3,973,021 METHOD 6F FQRMENG MGDULAR FRAMELES RDfiF NTRUCTEON Maurice W. Goodwili, 14920 Sunset Drive, and Leslie W. Hang, 1913 S. th St, both of Grand Forks, N. Dak- Filed June 6, 1956, Ser. No. 589,717 5 Claims. (Cl. 3-548) This invention relates to modular frameless roof constructions. More particularly, it relates to the construction of arched roof steel buildings without utilizing trusses or other cross extending supporting structure to support the roof.

Experience in the building or arched roof steel buildings has shown that there are weaknesses in all buildings presently available on the commercial market. The weaknesses referred to are that all frame type buildings have a relatively high cost due to the additional steel required to provide a structure of sufiicient strength.

Of the frameless buildings which are available none are able to take full advantage of the economy effected by using the same steel as both structural support and as a covering. This is true of the frameless buildings because the methods of curving the panels under fabrication in such construction entails the imparting of a cross corrugation to the metal. Under the severe load conditions usually encountered by such a structure, this corrugated area is under compression stress. However, this design does not allow the full utilization of the normal compression stress of steel because the steel is actually under a bending stress rather than a compression stress since the corrugations run transversely of the axis of the compression force. Thus, although the particular material which is corrugated may be increased in its loadbearing capacity in one direction of the plane of the panel, it is found that these corrugations have actually weakened the panel in the transverse direction of the same plane. Our invention is directed toward eliminating these disadvantages and toward taking full advantage of the allowable compression stress of the metal within the panel, taken longitudinally of the panel.

The advantages of a frameless roof construction are well recognized in the art. However such a roof construction may be called upon to support unusually heavy loads in the form of snow collecting thereupon, large bulk grain storage, or to withstand considerable thrust from high winds and storms. As a result it is imperative that the frameless roof construction utilized be amply strong to withstand such loads as are imposed upon it. At the same time, of course, it is imperative that the cost of manufacture of such a frameless roof construction be maintained at a minimum. The better the design of the individual panel of such a frameless roof construction, the less metal will be required to be incorporated therein and thereby the cost of manufacturing the same will be reduced. Our invention is directed toward providing such a frameless roof panel at a very minimum of cost.

It is a general object of our invention to provide a novel and improved modular frameless roof panel of simple and inexpensive design and construction.

A more specific object is to provide a novel and improved modular fr-arneless roof panel having increased strength while utilizing less steel than heretofore required.

Another object is to provide a novel and improved modular frameless roof panel which is less expensive to produce and yet has a load-bearing capacity considerably in excess of corresponding structures heretofore known.

Another object is to provide a novel and improved modular frameless arched roof construction which requires no trusses or cross extending supporting structure and yet is amply strong to bear the loads normally imposed lit ine

thereupon while utilizing a minimum of steel in the man ufacture of the same.

Another object is to provide a novel and improved method of forming a modular section of a frameless roof construction which will substantially increase the loadbearing capacity of the section without the addition of additional metal thereto or providing additional supporting structure.

Another object is to provide a novel and improved modular frameless arched roof construction which will take full advantage of an economy effected by using the same steel as both structural support and covering material.

Another object is to provide a novel and improved modular frameless roof construction which aflfords economy by virtue of simple and speedy erection.

Another object is to provide a novel and improvedv method of forming a modular frameless roof panel which utilizes a reduction in thickness of material by cold working of portions of the panel and thus increases the overall strength of the panel.

These and other objects and advantages of our invention will more fully appear from the following description made in connection with'the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference characters refer to the same or similar parts throughout the several views, and in which:

FIG. 1 is an end elevational view of an arched roof steel building formed from a plurality of panel members embodying our invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a plurality of panel members embcdying our invention and connected in side-by-side relationship and in an end-to-end overlapping relationship.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view on an enlarged scale taken along line 33 of FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is a diagrammatic view of a machine which may be utilized to form one of the panel members embodying our invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagrammatic view illustrating the formation of one of the panel members embodying our invention and passing through the machine shown in FIG. 4.

FIG. 6 is a side elevational view of one of the embodfments of our invention after it has been formed.

PEG. 7 is an end elevational view diagrammatic in nature and illustrating the manner in which the corrugations may be imparted to the central portion of one of the panel members embodying our invention.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view on a reduced scale of one of the blanks from which the panel members embodying our invention may be formed.

FIG. 9 is a vertical sectional view similar to FIG. 3 and taken through a second embodiment of our invention.

Our invention as shown in the figures described above, includes a modular roof construction comprising an elongated longitudinally channeled panel member 10 formed of metal such as steel and having a generally horizontal base portion 11 and channel-defining wall portions 12 and 13 extending upwardly and outwardly from opposite sides of the base portion 11. As will be described hereinafter, these channel-defining wall portions 12 and 13 have been stretched longitudinally to impart convex curvature to the panel member 10 and its base portion 11 about a horizontal axis extending transversely of the length of the panel member. This is best shown in FIG. 6.

The base portion 11 has a plurality of longitudinally extending corrugations 11a, 11b, and 11c formed therein. These corrugations, as shown, extend the full length of the panel member ltl and are the only corrugations formed therein.

The outermost areas of the channel-defining portions 12 and 13 of the panel member are each formed into a laterally and outwardly extending flange 14 and 15 respectively. These flanges 14 and 15 provide connecting portions whereby the panel members 10 may be connected in side-by-side relationship.

FIG. 1 shows an arched steel roof building indicated generally at B, the roof R having been constructed upon a cement foundation F from a plurality of panel members 10. These panel members 11) are connected in end-overend overlapping relationship through the use of rivets or bolts such as 15 and are arranged to extend from one side of the foundation to the other. The bolts or rivets 16 extend through openings 17 which are provided at each end of each of the panels 10 to receive the bolts or rivets therein. The panelmembers 10 are arrangedin a side-by-sideirelation and secured to. each other in that relation by clamps indicated generally as 18, the clamps engagingthe adjacent laterally extending flanges 14 and p 15 of the panel members as best shown in FIG. 3. The clamp includes an upper plate member 18a, a lower plate member 18b, and a connecting bolt or rivet 18c.

The individualpanel members .10 are formed from a rectangularly shaped sheet of steel such as 19, as shown in FIG/8. This sheet of steel 19 may be first formed into a channel member, if preferred, or it may be so formed'simultaneously with the stretching of the channeldefining portions 12 and 13v as illustrated in FIG. 4. In FIG. 4 thesheet '19 is passed through a metal working machine indicated generally as M.

The machine M preferably includes a pressure-adjustment assembly 20 which is controlled by a'pressure-adjustment wheel 21. This pressure-adjustment assembly is mounted so ,as to overhang a pair of driven roller mountings 22 and 23 which rotatably support a pair of driven rollers 24 and 25. These driven rollers 24 and 25 are driven by a driving gear mechanism indicated generally-as 26. The lower end of the pressure-adjustment assembly carries a pair of idling pressure rollers 27 and 28 as is best shown in FIG. 4, the idling rollers being positioned by the pressure-adjustment assembly relative to the driven rollers so as to permit a panel member such as 19 to be passed therebetween and to apply substantial pressure to the channel-defining portions 12 and 13 so as to .cause these portions to elongate longitudinally. In other words, this machine, when properly adjusted, causes the channel-defining portions 12 and 13 to stretch longitudinally and the amount of pressure applied to these portions increases outwardly from the base portion 11 so that the areasadjacent the base portion 11 are stretched less than the more remote areas. Therefore, the material of the portions 12 and T13 is subjected to diflierentially thinning, or in other words, is thinned or stretched out more at the outermost areas than at the areas adjacent tothe base portion 11 and hence convex curvature is induced within the base portion 11.

.As the sheet19 is passed through this machine M, it is formed into a longitudinally channeled panel member and at the same time the channel-defining portions 12 and 13 are stretched as a result of passing between the pairs of rollers 2427 and 2528. This stretching simultaneously imparts convexcurvature to the base portion 11 and increases the tensile strength of the wall port-ions 12 and 13. If desired, longitudinal corrugations such as 11a, 11b and 110 may be formed in the base portion 11 thereafter bypassing the panel through a corrugating machine indicated generally as C in FIG. 7.

FIG. '7 illustrates a fragmentary portion of a machine having a pair of interfitting rolls or rollers 29 and 30 which will impart corrugation to any piece of metal passed therebetween. Even without the corrugations, however, we find that our panel members 10 are much stronger than similarly channelled members having transverse corrugations in the base portions since the cross corrugations would tend to cause premature failure in bending. Our panel members 111 are also much stronger than similarly channelled members having merely fiat base portions without stretched channel-defining portions by virtue of the increase in tensile strength of channeldefining portions 12 and 13 by cold working.

We have found that by forming the panel members as hereinbefore described, the load-bearing capacity of such a panel member is substantially increased. By stretching the channel-defining portions 12 and 13, this material from which it is formed increases in tensile strength as a result of the cold working of the metal involvedin stretching, and as a direct result, the loadbearing capacity of the panel member is substantially increased from this fact alone. In addition, the omission of the transversely extending corrugations eliminates any weakening-which would otherwise take place between the adjacent corrugations insofar as supporting a load is concerned.

P16; 9 shows a second embodiment of our invention. We have found that panels are preferably about two feet in width and, in such instances, it is desirable to corrugate the base portion of the panel longitudinally. We have found, however, that the panel is even stronger if we form the longitudinally extending corrugations similarly to the manner in which the basic panel members are formed. In other words, we induce channel shaped longitudinally extending corrugations in the base portion of the panel member and stretch the channel-corrugation defining portions as well as the side wall portions of the panel which correspond to the portions 12 and 13 of the panel shown in FIGS. 1-8. The extent of the stretching of thechannel-corrugation defining portions is proportional to the distance of these portions from the base portion of the panel member and is correlated with the pressure applied to the side wall portions of the panel member.

In FIG. 9, we show in vertical cross-section such a panel member 35 having side wall portions 36 and 37 and a base portion 3 8. The base portion 3 8 has a pair of longitudinally extending inverted channels 39 and 4% formed therein. The channel 3 9 has a generally horizontal portion 3 9 and vertically outwardly extending portions 39b and 39c. The channel 4e has asimilar generally horizontal portion 441a and vertically outwardly extending portions 4% and 10c. In forming these channeis 59 and :40 pressure-controlled rollers are used and the pressure and spacing between these rollers is adjusted so that the areas of the portions 39b, 39c, 4%, and 40c more closely adjacent to the base portion 38 are subjected to less pressure and are thinned out or stretched longitudinally less than the more remote portions. The portions 39a and 40a are also diiferentially thinned longitudinally, the amount of thinning being dependent upon the vertical distance thereof from the base portion 38, as will be readily appreciated, and being correlated with the amount of thinning of the portions 36 and 37.

The structure shown in FIG. 9 is even stronger than the same type of panel member with longitudinal corrugations in the base portion of the usual curved type wherein no stretching is involved.

It should be noted that, in a roof structure utilizing modular panels such as shown herein, the base portion of the channelled member such as element 11 constitutes the compression flange while the side wall portions 12 and 13 constitute the tension flanges of the beam, if the panel member is viewed as a beam under a critical load. In structures such as grain storage bins the load of the grain against the base portion 11 is usually the most strenuous condition met and this is not experienced at the top of the roof but rather at a point between the base and the top of the roof. By making our panels as herein described we have substantially reduced the possibility of compression failure at the base portion.

The outstanding advantage of our construction of course, is its increased load capacity. In addition, however, it should be noted that we have provided a modular frameless roof panel which is extremely simple and inexpensive in design and construction, while at the same time utilizing less steel than has heretofore been required in the construction of the modular frameless roof. It will be noted that there are no trusses or cross-extending supporting structures required to support the weight of the roof R and any loads which will normally be imposed thereupon. The amount of metal required to make one of our panel members is substantially less than when transversely extending corrugations are used because the latter obviously require more material in a given length panel due to the imposition of the transverse corrugations which tend to shorten the length of a blank of predetermined length.

It will also be noted that the method by which we form our channel members is extremely simple and inexpensive and yet produces a panel member of substantially in creased load-bearing capacity.

It will, of course, be understood that various changes may be made in the form, details, arrangement and proportions of the parts without departing from the scope of our invention.

What is claimed is:

1. The method of manufacturing a self-supporting section of roof consisting of forming a substantially longitudinally extending channel member with a substantially horizontal central bottom portion and substantially upwardly and outwardly disposed side walls extending longitudinally from the opposite edges of said bottom portion, theerafter simultaneously applying rolling pressure in opposite directions to opposite sides of both of said side walls at a localized area tnerealong and at a point along each of said side walls in alignment with each other, applying sid pressure in a direction extending vertically of said longitudinally extending side walls, and applying said pressure progressively and continuously from one end of said channel member to the opposite end thereof, with a greater pressure being applied at the outer end of said side walls and progressively decreasing in a direction toward the lower ends of said side walls to cause differential thinning of said side walls with the thinner portion being adjacent the outer ends of said side walls and to induce convex curvature of said bottom portion of the channel member.

2. The method of claim 1, and corrugating said central bottom portion longitudinally.

3. The method of claim 1, and corrugating said central bottom portion longitudinally, and differentially thinning said central portion.

4. The method of claim 1, and corrugating said central bottom portion longitudinally thereof to form vertically outwardly extending portions, and differentially thinning the metal in said vertically outwardly extending portions in progressively decreasing amounts outwardly from a point adjacent the inner end of said vertically extending portions.

5. The method of manufacture of a section of modular roof construction consisting in bending upwardly lateral portions of an elongated panel of metal at opposite sides of a longitudinally extending central portion of said panel to form a channel in said panel, differentially thinning the metal simultaneously in each of said lateral portions longitudinally of said lateral portions in ever-increasing amounts outwardly of said central portion of said panel whereby convex curvature is induced within said central portion, forming a longitudinally extending generally horizontally-bottomed channel in said central portion, said central portion channel being defined by portions extending vertically outwardly from its bottom differentially thinning the metal in said vertically extending portions longitudinally in ever decreasing amounts outwardly from said bottom, and thinning the bottom of said central por tion channel longitudinally an amount corresponding to that applied to the areas of said lateral portions extending in the same horizontal plane as said bottom of said central portion bottom.

References (Jiterl in the tile of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 897,298 Meis Sept. 1, 1908 1,148,480 Robinson July 27, 1915 1,158,294 Robinson Get. 26, 1915 1,399,951 Forsyth Dec. 13, 1921 1,622,426 Engelke Mar. 29, 1927 1,673,477 Yates June 12, 1928 1,737,049 Kelly Nov. 26, 1929 1,948,619 Kuntson Feb. 27, 1934 1,958,467 Buckle May 15, 1934 2,257,153 Blaslo' Sept. 30, 1941 2,311,501 Zoldok Feb. 16, 1943 2,436,543 Blaski Feb. 24, 1948 2,717,060 Collins Sept. 6, 1955 2,734,474 Bolbert Feb. 14, 1956 FOREIGN PATENTS 125,544 Great Britain Apr. 24, 1919 

1. THE METHOD OF MANUFACTURING A SELF-SUPPORTING SECTION OF ROOF CONSISTING OF FORMING A SUBSTANTIALLY LONGITUDINALLY EXTENDING CHANNEL MEMBER WITH A SUBSTANTIALLY HORIZONTAL CENTRAL BOTTOM PORTION AND SUBSTANTIALLY UPWARDLY AND OUTWARDLY DISPOSED SIDE WALLS EXTENDING LONGITUDINALLY FROM THE OPPOSITE EDGES OF SAID BOTTOM PORTION, THEREAFTER SIMULTANEOUSLY APPLYING ROLLING PRESSURE IN OPPOSITE DIRECTIONS TO OPPOSITE SIDES OF BOTH OF SAID SIDE WALLS AT A LOCALIZED AREA THEREALONG AND AT A POINT ALONG EACH OF SAID SIDE WALLS IN ALIGNMENT WITH EACH OTHER, APPLYING SAID PRESSURE IN A DIRECTION EXTENDING VERTICALLY OF SAID LONGITUDINALLY EXTENDING SIDE WALLS, AND APPLYING SAID PRESSURE PROGRESSIVELY AND CONTINUOUSLY FROM ONE END OF SAID CHANNEL MEMBER TO THE OPPOSITE END THEREOF, WITH A GREATER PRESSURE BEING APPLIED AT THE OUTER END OF SAID SIDE WALLS AND PROGRESSIVELY DECREASING IN A DIRECTION TOWARD THE LOWER ENDS OF SAID SIDE WALLS TO CAUSE DIFFERENTIAL THINNING OF SAID SIDE WALLS WITH THE THINNER PORTION BEING ADJACENT THE OUTER ENDS OF SAID SIDE WALLS AND TO INDUCE CONVEX CURVATURE OF SAID BOTTOM PORTION OF THE CHANNEL MEMBER. 